Metal Men

Writer and Artist: Duncan Rouleau
Story based on ideas by: Grant Morrison
Colors: Moose Baumann and Pete Pantazis
Letterer: Pat Brosseau
Publisher: DC Comics

What’s it about?
This trade paperback collects the eight issues of the 2007-08 Metal Men mini-series.

The Metal Men are a rather obscure team of DC Comics characters. They were originally conceived as a super team of intelligent robots fighting other robotic menaces under the guidance of their creator Doctor Will Magnus during the Silver Age of comics.
They sort of fell under the radar over the years, that is until after the big Crisis when DC decided to revamp  various old concepts. By giving several of its proprieties a test run to see which characters could support a book in the then-modern market. (amongst others, The Martian Manhunter, Angel & The Ape or even Green Arrow were given a mini-series with only a handful of them ending up with a regular on-going series)
The Metal Men were then reimagined as fellow scientist (and friends) of Doc. Magnus turned into robots in a freak accident. But the concept sort of felt odd, turning these robots into cheap knock-offs of the Fantastic Four or the Doom Patrol.

After that, they weren't much seen anymore for a decade, besides little apperances here and there in other DC books or events.

That is were writer Grant Morrison comes in.
During DC's big yearly story arc 52, narrating a missing year from the perspective of "B and C-lister" type of characters, Morrison decided to give a sub-plot to DC's evil scientists on the imaginary island of Oolong Island. A story in which the Metal Men creator Magnus was abducted by the evil Chang Tzu and forced to work on some top secret projects.
After that, Morrison wanted to write a mini-series which would have seen the return of the Metal Men, based upong Magnus' experience from 52 and building up on his own development in that story.

Finally, Morrison stepping out for other projects (his work on Batman) DC gave the greenlight for this idea and it was creator Duncan Rouleau who took creative control as both writer and artist for this Metal Men book.

"Metal Men" is both a continuation of Will Magnus as seen in 52 and a reimagining of these characters' origin story.

Justice League #1

Writer: Geoff Johns
Pencils: Jim Lee
Inker: Scott Williams
Colorist: Alex Sinclair
Letterer: Patrick Brosseau
Publisher: DC Comics

Regular cover on the left, variant cover on the right.  We recommend you buy the regular cover so you can avoid looking at a deformed and pin headed Wonder Woman.  The inside of the comic is exactly the same, just the cover is different.

What's it about?
It's the introduction to the new DC Universe.  In an attempt to boost sales and attract new readers to their books, DC Comics have recently undergone a relaunch.  Lovely, this is just the sort of initiative we approve of at New readers...start here!

The story is set 5 years in the past, at a time when the Justice League, DC Comics' premier team of superheroes, is just forming.  It is part of an ongoing story arc, which will probably be spread out over 5 or 6 issues.  This means this issue is just the first part of the story.  Apart from that I will tell you nothing else as it's only 26 pages long and I want to avoid spoilers.

Green Arrow: Crawling Through the Wreckage

Writer: Judd Winick
Penciller: Scott McDaniel
Inker: Andy Owens
Colorist: Guy Major
Letterer: Pat Brosseau
Publisher: DC

What's it about?
Oliver Queen is a multi millionaire with a secret identity - he is also the masked vigilante Green Arrow, crimefighter of Star City.  We start this story one year after a large proportion of the city was blown up.  In the last year a wall has been built, effectively ghettoising the poorer parts of the city (sound familiar?); corporate fat cats are trying to turn a profit at the expense of human lives and a former criminal is the only one bothering to keep the peace in the ghetto.  Oliver is not happy with these developments.  But that's OK, because at the end of issue one we discover that he's now Mayor of Star City (and still moonlighting as Green Arrow).

Batman: The Brave and the Bold - The Fearsome Fangs Strike Again!

Writer: J Torres and Landry Walker
Pencils: J. Bone, Carlo Barberi and Eric Jones
Inks: J.Bone, Terry Beatty and Eric Jones
Colorist: Heroic Age
Letters: Travis Lanham, Pat Brosseau and Rob Clark Jr
Publisher: DC 

What's it about?
This is a Batman team up book for younger readers.  Based on the long running Brave and the Bold cartoon, the trade contains 6 issues, each of which sees Batman teaming up with another hero or group of heroes.

In this book Batman works with the Doom Patrol (a group of heroes who have had bizarre accidents leaving them with strange powers), Green Arrow (archer extraordinaire), The Great Ten (China's equivalent of the Justice League of America), Catman (a new character with similar skills to Batman), The Atom (able to shrink himself to fight crime), the Huntress (mafia daughter fighting for justice) and Adam Strange and Alanna (sci-fi adventurers).

They encounter yetis, tentacled many-eyed space octopus's, the moon gang, mis-named unbeatable nightmare mutants, deadly ninja and a force comprised of universe destroying anti matter.

THE AMAZING SCREW-ON HEAD And Other Curious Objects

Writers: Mike Mignola, Katie Mignola

Art: Mike Mignola

Colors: Dave Stewart

Letters: Clem Robins and Pat Brosseau

Publisher: Dark Horse Comics

Today's review is a guest post brought to you by Mothee.  Mothee is a comics fan, about to graduate from film school and would like to be a writer.  You can find Mothee at the following places:

Twitter: @Mothee

Blogspot: http://mothee.blogspot.com

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/mothee

On with the review!

What’s it about?

A clever collection of short stories and art by comics auteur Mike Mignola. For those who may be unfamiliar with his work, Mignola is best known as the creator of Hellboy (you may have seen or heard about the film that was released in 2004). He’s a writer/artist with a flair for the fantastic with a twinge of horror and oddities thrown in for good measure.

Included in this collection:

Teen Titans: Spotlight: Wonder Girl

Writer: J. Torres
Penciller: Sanford Greene
Inker: Nathan Massengill
Colorist: Guy Major
Letterers: Pat Brosseau, Phil Balsman, Steve Wands
Publisher: DC

What's it about?
Cassandra Sandsmark, Amazon protege and warrior, has not had a good year.  To begin with she was involved in an epic stop-the-Apocalypse type of battle.  Then her boyfriend died and in her grief she joined a cult dedicated to bringing him back from the dead.  Then her Gods and her mentor abandoned her.  Her efforts to stop a war between the Amazons and the rest of the world backfired spectacularly.

There's a lot of dangerous Hydras out there she needs to stop and on top of all this her (possibly evil) brother Hercules turns up, requesting her help to stop a God killer.

She would really rather not be dealing with all this...